Hi everyone, thank you for taking your time in attending this talk
First I would like to ask every audience to raise their hand if you think that I look great today
Thank you for raising your hand
From the outside perspective the notion that I'm disabled is absurd
I can study, hold on a job and run I'm not physically impaired and to date I have been
relatively successful in my study
Nonetheless, I'm battle a creeping disability daily - Chronic Depression
"But you seemed happy"
"You have friends"
"You're sociable"
"I seen you eat"
"You look healthy"
" You doesn't look depressed"
That is all the response I received when is discussing my struggles
In reality is, that despite I seem happy and sociable I'm still chronically unwell
as such I require extra time to complete my projects,
to rest and take care of my health
Living with chronic mental illness is exhausting in a way
that cannot be explained to those who do not understand
We tend to hide our real feeling to avoid others worrying us
Sometimes the tiredness is perpetual and fails to be remedied by sleep.
Likewise, I have had to finish my work in the reduced hours
due to the number of days where I am simply overwhelmed
with negative emotions and cannot function.
Sometimes I worry the people who see me lazy when I'm late or absent
in the team meeting, even they assure me that it is okay
I feel responsible to work twice as hard to prove that I am not a work-dodger
that I didn't come in late because of a fancy lie
Although my disability is not visible, it is real.
I feel perpetually judged by those around me
even though I know that it is not the case
It's taken me many years to figure out how to manage my disability
in a way that allows me to enjoy life.
My time at ANU, I took all the responsibility on my own,
which leads to me burn out and
eventually I couldn't take it anymore then decides to take a semester break on 2016.
For a long time, I often felt guilty for the extra help
and support I had to get through my degree;
I felt like that I wasn't good enough to study at ANU.
I feel that my disability and associated side effects
weren't the valid reasons for needing the extra help.
However, after receiving help from the student mental health association,
I realised that I am, in fact, living with a disability
that there is no shame in needing reasonable adjustments to manage that.
I am lucky to stand here and share my experience with you.
I can accept my disability and figure out a way to balance my mental health
along with my academic development.
It has been challenging to realise that I may never be able to live in a normal way,
however, I have learned that disability do not have to get in the way of success.
In this year, I have grown both personally and professionally,
which is a form of success,
alongside delivering this speech I encourage everyone
to be aware of this issue
Do it for your friends,
For your families
The research, by Headspace,
indicates that there is one in three Australian students had thought of suicide or self-harm
over the 12 months,
the number is extremely high,
and it should be a point of concern to the community.
The increased workload, deadlines, relationship problems and financial hardships
those are some of the common struggle among students
which causes the stress.
65 percent of the students also reported to have high levels of psychological stress,
which suffered panic attacks, had suffer trouble in sleeping and experiencing hopelessness.
From the statistics, we know that many people are living with disabilities,
both external or within ANU Community,
facing unfair judgement and expectations from peers, managers,
lecturers, tutors, and other people around them
To change this, it is important for us to share this experience, help and support each other.
To the victim of chronic depression,
when we encounter situation what we could not handle ourself,
such as negligence or unfair treatment,
it is vital for us to speak out against and change it.
Despite, this is a difficult thing to do
as it places us in a very vulnerable position,
it is necessary that we stay together in facing our fear, stand up and seek help.
Although it took a lot of effort to stand for yourself in bringing the small differences in your life,
at least you will know how much your community care about you
You are not alone
To our fellow friends and the ANU community,
it is necessary to take action to create a safe place and appropriate structures for disabled persons to speak up
and seek the support that they need.
If you have noticed that a friend, family member or student is stressed or anxious.
Speak and help them to find the available sources of professional or local help.
Big things always start from the beginning.
A little effort from you could change a person world.
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